I didn’t meet the revered Chicago Tribune theater critic, Richard Christiansen, until 2016 when I started interviewing him for my book Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater. He was 84 years old and living at The Selfhelp Home, an assisted living facility for older Jewish adults where a caregiver he particularly liked would sit […]
Tag: Albert Williams
Posted inArts & Culture
From stage to page
I tell this story all the time, so forgive me if you’ve already heard it. But when I moved from Chicago in late 1993 to San Francisco (where I spent the next seven years), the first thing I did was pick up the alt-weeklies there: the SF Weekly and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, both […]
Posted inHistory
Queer history through the eyes of the Reader
“Y oung Hyde Park male seeks other young males to get it on with.” A phone number followed, along with the young man’s availability: days, as well as Friday and Saturday. The Chicago Reader’s first explicitly gay content came not in a blistering exposé, music feature, or show review, but in the classifieds, the backpages […]
Posted inArts & Culture
How Jim Shiflett built the church of off-Loop theater
The founder of Body Politic died in December, but the seeds he planted 50 years ago played an immeasurable role in the growth of Chicago’s small theater scene.
Posted inBlogs
The weekly quiz night Trivia Mafia and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week
“Endless Summer” at the MCA and more goings-on 3/19-3/22
Posted inArts & Culture
Mattachine podcast uncovers the forgotten history of queer liberation
The way out of the closet began with a strike against American fascism.
Posted inBlogs
If the national anthem is racist, let’s rewrite it
Take out the lines about slavery and replace them with more uplifting lyrics from an equally famous poem.
Posted inBlogs
From book’s blurbs, you’d never know these critics slammed the play
Haymarket’s published version of Steppenwolf’s This is Modern Art selectively excerpts some of the play’s reviews.
Posted inMusic
Rowdy bluesman Detroit Junior used to crawl under his piano while he played
Detroit Junior worked with Little Mack Simmons and Howlin’ Wolf, but it was his deep catalog of original songs that made him beloved in the blues world.
Posted inBlogs
Chris Jones wins national honor for drama criticism
The Tribune‘s longtime drama critic wins a prestigious Nathan Award.
Posted inBlogs
That wasn’t such a nice clambake: Some thoughts on the Carousel problem
Or how Rodgers and Hammerstein made something so ugly into something so pretty
Posted inBlogs
A modest suggestion for paying tribute to Mayor Jane Byrne
The greatest tribute we can pay to Mayor Jane Byrne is to elect a new mayor!
Posted inBlogs
Chicago Opera Theater’s two-opera/one-film weekend
Chicago Opera Theater is fleshing out its double bill of Ullmann and Orff with Chaplin.
Posted inBlogs
A lot of Claudia Cassidy and somewhat less of everyone else
Chris Jones publishes an anthology of Chicago Tribune theater criticism.